Heywood Sumner
Encyclopedia
George Heywood Maunoir Sumner (usually Heywood Sumner) (1853–1940) was originally an English
painter, illustrator and craftsman, closely involved with the Arts and Crafts movement
and the late-Victorian London art world. In his mid-forties he relocated to Cuckoo Hill, near Fordingbridge
in Hampshire
, England, and spent the rest of his life actively investigating and recording the archaeology, geology and folklore of the New Forest
and Cranborne Chase
regions.
, Hampshire
, the son of Reverend George Henry Sumner, an Anglican clergyman, and Mary Elizabeth Sumner
(née Heywood), also prominent in the Church of England
and well-known as the founder of the Mothers' Union
.
After attending Eton
, Sumner studied at Christ Church, Oxford
, and in 1881 qualified as a barrister
at Lincoln's Inn
, London
.
In 1883 Sumner married Agnes Benson, the sister of his college friend W A S Benson. Together they had five children - three boys and two girls. In 1897 Sumner retired from London and moved his family to Bournemouth
on the south coast of England, ostensibly because of his wife's ill-health. In 1902 he acquired a plot of land at Cuckoo Hill, on the east side of the Avon valley, and designed and built his ideal family house. Sumner lived at Cuckoo Hill from 1904 until his death in 1940 at the age of 87. The house is now a care home.
and the Arts and Crafts movement
.
Sumner rejected the elitism of the William Morris clique and engaged in projects to bring Arts and Crafts within the experience of the general public. In particular in the 1890s he helped to set up the Fitzroy Picture Society, a group of artists dedicated to producing boldly coloured prints that could be sold cheaply to liven up the walls of public institutions such as schools and hospitals.
Sumner did not excel in any one particular technique, but his breadth of achievement was remarkable. Several of his areas of expertise are described below.
, a technique of incising designs in coloured plaster. He started by decorating the houses of his relatives, and later his narrative designs and ornamental patterns covered the walls of several Victorian churches and chapels in the British Isles: from St Mary the Virgin in Llanfair Kilgeddin
, Monmouthshire
(1887–88) to All Saints in Ennismore Gardens, London (1897–1903).
The earliest version of The Book of Gorley was re-published in 1987 as a full-colour, original manuscript edition with the title Cuckoo Hill: The Book of Gorley. The book is illustrated throughout with Sumner's distinctive line drawings, stylised maps and watercolour paintings.
Sumner's earliest contributions to archaeology involved surveying the prehistoric earthworks of Cranborne Chase, only a bike-ride away from his home at Cuckoo Hill in the Avon valley. The results of his fieldwork between 1911 and 1913 were published in a collection entitled The Ancient Earthworks of Cranborne Chase. In 1917 he published a companion volume The Ancient Earthworks of the New Forest. In 1921, in partnership with W G Wallace, Sumner published Ancient Earthworks of the Bournemouth District in the proceedings of the Bournemouth Natural Science Society. These three studies of ancient earthworks in the Wessex region included hillforts, enclosures and notable barrows. Sumner's distinctive graphic style was evident in the maps, diagrams and illustrations of these earthworks.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
painter, illustrator and craftsman, closely involved with the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
and the late-Victorian London art world. In his mid-forties he relocated to Cuckoo Hill, near Fordingbridge
Fordingbridge
Fordingbridge is a town and civil parish with a population of 5,700 on the River Avon in the New Forest District of Hampshire, England, near to the Dorset and Wiltshire borders and on the edge of the New Forest. It is south west of London, and south of the city of Salisbury. Fordingbridge is a...
in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, England, and spent the rest of his life actively investigating and recording the archaeology, geology and folklore of the New Forest
New Forest
The New Forest is an area of southern England which includes the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in the heavily-populated south east of England. It covers south-west Hampshire and extends into south-east Wiltshire....
and Cranborne Chase
Cranborne Chase
Cranborne Chase is a Chalk plateau in central southern England, straddling the counties Dorset, Hampshire and Wiltshire. The plateau is part of the English Chalk Formation and is adjacent to Salisbury Plain and the West Wiltshire Downs in the north, the Dorset Downs to the south west and the...
regions.
Early life and family
Sumner was born in Old AlresfordOld Alresford
Old Alresford is a village and civil parish in Hampshire, England. It is situated some 1 km north of the town of New Alresford, 12 km north-east of the city of Winchester, and 20 km south-west of the town of Alton....
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, the son of Reverend George Henry Sumner, an Anglican clergyman, and Mary Elizabeth Sumner
Mary Sumner
Mary Sumner was the founder of the Mothers' Union, a worldwide Anglican women's organisation. She is commemorated in a number of provinces of the Anglican Communion on 9 August....
(née Heywood), also prominent in the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
and well-known as the founder of the Mothers' Union
Mothers' Union
Mothers’ Union is an international Christian charity that seeks to support families worldwide. Its members are not all mothers or even all women, as there are many parents, men, widows, singles and grandparents involved in its work...
.
After attending Eton
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, Sumner studied at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
, and in 1881 qualified as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
at Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
In 1883 Sumner married Agnes Benson, the sister of his college friend W A S Benson. Together they had five children - three boys and two girls. In 1897 Sumner retired from London and moved his family to Bournemouth
Bournemouth
Bournemouth is a large coastal resort town in the ceremonial county of Dorset, England. According to the 2001 Census the town has a population of 163,444, making it the largest settlement in Dorset. It is also the largest settlement between Southampton and Plymouth...
on the south coast of England, ostensibly because of his wife's ill-health. In 1902 he acquired a plot of land at Cuckoo Hill, on the east side of the Avon valley, and designed and built his ideal family house. Sumner lived at Cuckoo Hill from 1904 until his death in 1940 at the age of 87. The house is now a care home.
Sumner the artist
Sumner studied law at Oxford and London alongside his childhood friend W A S Benson, who later became a successful metalwork designer; it was through this friendship that he was introduced to William MorrisWilliam Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
and the Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
.
Sumner rejected the elitism of the William Morris clique and engaged in projects to bring Arts and Crafts within the experience of the general public. In particular in the 1890s he helped to set up the Fitzroy Picture Society, a group of artists dedicated to producing boldly coloured prints that could be sold cheaply to liven up the walls of public institutions such as schools and hospitals.
Sumner did not excel in any one particular technique, but his breadth of achievement was remarkable. Several of his areas of expertise are described below.
Line drawing and etching
Sumner's earliest publications - The Itchen Valley from Tichbourne to Southampton (1881) and The Avon from Naseby to Tewkesbury (1882) - were illustrated with his own etchings, and in 1883 he was commissioned to illustrate an edition of J R Wise's The New Forest. In the process of illustrating various children's books he developed a more stylised technique, used to good effect in his later publications on the topography and archaeology of the New Forest and surroundings.Sgraffito
Sumner experimented with sgraffitoSgraffito
Sgraffito is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colors to a moistened surface, or in ceramics, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive layers of contrasting slip, and then in either case scratching so as to produce an...
, a technique of incising designs in coloured plaster. He started by decorating the houses of his relatives, and later his narrative designs and ornamental patterns covered the walls of several Victorian churches and chapels in the British Isles: from St Mary the Virgin in Llanfair Kilgeddin
Llanfair Kilgeddin
Llanfair Kilgeddin is a small village in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. It is located four miles north west of Usk and six miles south east of Abergavenny on the B4598 road. The River Usk passes close by.- History and amenities :...
, Monmouthshire
Monmouthshire (historic)
Monmouthshire , also known as the County of Monmouth , is one of thirteen ancient counties of Wales and a former administrative county....
(1887–88) to All Saints in Ennismore Gardens, London (1897–1903).
Stained glass
Sumner designed stained-glass windows for several churches built or redecorated around 1900, sometimes as part of a bigger scheme including his sgraffito and mosaic. Examples of his stained glass work can be found at St Mary (Longworth, Berkshire), All Saints (Ennismore Gardens, London - now a Russian Orthodox cathedral), St Mary the Virgin (Llanfair Kilgeddin, Wales), St Mary Magdalene (North Ockendon, Essex), and the rose window at St Mary the Virgin (Great Warley, Essex).Tapestry
One of Sumner's last commercial works was a tapestry called The Chase, woven by William Morris and company in 1908. An image of this tapestry can be seen at the Hamsphire Museum Website.Folk songs
Sumner illustrated and published his own collection of eleven Hampshire folk songs, entitled The Besom-Maker and other Country-Folk Songs. He sometimes entertained his fellow members at the Art Worker's Guild with renditions of these songs and in return they called him 'The Shepherd'.The Book of Gorley
In 1910 Sumner published The Book of Gorley, a work that had started out as a personal journal of his new rural way of life. In addition to lyrical descriptions of the topography and natural history of his surroundings, the book includes anecdotes and illustrations of local characters and the history of the New Forest and its adjacent commons.The earliest version of The Book of Gorley was re-published in 1987 as a full-colour, original manuscript edition with the title Cuckoo Hill: The Book of Gorley. The book is illustrated throughout with Sumner's distinctive line drawings, stylised maps and watercolour paintings.
Sumner the archaeologist
External links
- Examples of Sumner's illustrative work from the Alphabet of Illustrators
- Sumner's Sintram and His Companions in the University of Florida Digital CollectionsUniversity of Florida Digital CollectionsThe University of Florida Digital Collections are supported by the University of Florida Digital Library Center in the George A. Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida. The University of Florida Digital Collections comprise a constantly growing collection of digital resources from the...